Shuffle up and deal

On the heels of the recently completed World Series of Poker main event, I thought it would be helpful to describe what I am thinking with the stable in terms of a marathon Texas Hold ‘Em tourney. Here is a quick recap of some of the hands we have played.

* We got off to a slow start and only won a couple of small pots (Leather N Lace, Fightin Hen).
* We were dealt a pair of Aces (Starlet Sky), but we failed to play the hand correctly and didn’t win as much as we could have.
* We had some good hands that when combined with a little luck in the community cards became very profitable for us as they were played to perfection (Lite Brigade, Go Go Diablo, Silver Peagus the first two times).
* Stayed on a nice roll while winning a couple small pots (Chief Magistrate, Stage Glitter).
* Overconfidence creeps in and we play a few hands when the odds were not in our favor (Unreal General, Jared’stemper, Carey’s Gold).
* After a few more bad beats, we went on tilt and played a number of hands we should have mucked (No Tolerance, Tiz Stormin, Halory’s Blush, Yanks Acomin, Silver Peagus the third time).

Many hands are not yet finished and we are awaiting the Turn and the River. Some are looking good (Dawn Raider, Art of Diplomacy, Uno Way Calle) while we are drawing dead in others (Thrill of Victory, Slapout).

While we may still have an ace up our sleeve (Tytus), we are at a crossroads in this tourney. We can either a) play conservative, limp in a few hands and hope to get lucky or b) get aggressive and push “all-in”. Option A may allow us to stick around a lot longer in hopes of outlasting the other players. However, the blinds may eventually consume our bankroll. Option B would speed things along and it definitely increases the chances of busting. This week of racing will go a long ways in determining what option we choose. With the entries we have on the board already and the few more I expect for the weekend, our bankroll could change significantly – all should be in spots where they could win and/or get claimed away from us.

For those who play hold ‘em, you can relate to this analogy. For others, I probably managed to do little more than waste your time.